Canadian team celebrates the St-Germain victory: Photo GEPA

Méribel, France – Few, if any, thought bib 18, Canadian Laurence St-Germain would finish the first run 3rd and end the day with a victory. However, St-Germain is the women’s 2023 slalom world champion.

USA’s Mikaela Shiffrin finishes in 2nd and Germany’s Lena Duerr ends the day in 3rd.

St-Germain graduated from the University of Vermont and was an All-American for the Catamounts. The woman currently ranked 18th in the World Cup slalom standings shocks the skiing world and is now World Champion. In contrast, the first-run leader Mikaela Shiffrin delivered the 29th-fastest second run and earned the silver medal. Skiing two racers before Shiiffrin, St-Germain was sixth fastest during the afternoon run and won.

“I was really not expecting this, obviously. It’s unbelievable,” St-Germain said. “I attacked, had a bit of a mistake, just thinking go down, go down, go down, and it worked out, I guess.”

It was the first gold for Canada in women’s slalom since Anne Heggtveit won at the 1960 Olympics in Squaw Valley, which also counted as the world championships.

St-Germain’s previous best result at major championships was sixth in the slalom at the 2019 worlds. Sixth is her best finish in a World Cup slalom, in Levi in 2020. However, this season her best finish was a 7th in Spindleruv Myln.

It was Switzerland’s Wendy Holdener who was the biggest threat to ST-Germain. Holdener had a (-0.72) advantage at the final split but then straddled and did not finish.

The medal fight began with five women left to ski. Petra Vlhova, 5th (+.0.99) after the first run, was the first to challenge. But Vlhova crossed into second. Duerr was the next to ski and while she lost most of her advantage, she finished with a slight (-0.02) lead. However, Canadian Laurence St-Germain continued to ski at an exceptional level and struck with a significant (-0.69) lead and a guaranteed medal. And when Switzerlands Wendy Holdener straddled and did not finish, St-Germain had earned a minimum of silver. However, silver turned to gold when during the final run, Shiffrin skied below her amazing standard and finished 2nd.

“Today was incredible, just a joy to race,” said Shiffrin. “Especially after the last weeks and everything that happened, I thought if I can do some of my best skiing,” Shiffrin said. “Everybody is tired and it’s the end of a long push. I was so happy with my first run and happy with a lot of sections on the second run. And here and there, I backed it off a little bit and then it’s not enough for gold.”

Austria set the second run. The Austrians have only earned one World Cup slalom podium during this season and didn’t ski fast in the bigger turns of the first run. Predictably the afternoon run was much more direct in an attempt to bring the Austrian women closer to the lead. The early indication revealed it was roughly five seconds faster than the morning course. However, the warm temperatures softened the racing surface and reduced the available speed for the first-run leaders.

Ali Nullmeyer was the first of the Canadians to ski. While she could not cross with the lead, she skied well and moved up the leaderboard. Nullmeyer finished 12th. Finishing inside the top 15, she will score valuable World Cup Start List points. Unfortunately, her teammate Amelia Smart could not find speed in the more direct course and ended her championship in 24th place.

Katie Hensien was the first Stifel US Alpine team member to ski the second run. She was aggressive from the start and delivered some strong skiing. Unfortunately, Hesien had difficulty in the second sector and lost too much time to be competitive. She ended her World Championships in 26th place in slalom and a gold medal in the mixed team parallel.

Hensien shared her thoughts after the race, “I was really happy about my first run, you know, some mistakes, but all in all, solid skiing. The second run wasn’t it for me, but I’m happy to take away two runs today. Plus, with my GS performance, I’m happy and taking the right steps forward and it’s showing, keep the momentum going into Are.”

Saturday’s race was the last women’s of the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships. The championships close with the men’s slalom in Courchevel Sunday.

Top 30 results and Analysis of the fastest three and other top 30 North Americans

Analysis of the fastest three and other top 30 North Americans

The Associated Press and USST contributed to this report.

The Associated Press and USST contributed to this report.